Firstly for perspective his is the original post...

Time to state the truth about Stuart Webber’s interview (with Rob Butler on Monday).

Did he say, “I am not a Norwich fan”?

Yes, but it was clear he meant in the sense that he didn’t grow up supporting NCFC.

He was talking about Wes and said, “I am not a Norwich fan but whenever I used to watch Norwich City play you’d look for Wes Hoolihan, to see if his name was on the team-sheet — because if you enjoy football you have got to love people like Wes Hoolahan’’.

That doesn’t mean Webber doesn’t care about the club or isn’t spending every waking moment thinking about how to make the club successful.

Paul Lambert grew up supporting Rangers. But he won the League with Celtic and brought Norwich three magnificent seasons. I don’t remember anyone being stupid enough to say, “He’s not a Norwich fan though, so I don’t like him”.

Did Webber say, “If you don’t like the way we’ve been playing, go and support someone else”?

No. Nothing like that.

He was responding to Rob saying fans are complaining about the football being boring. He said: “At times at home it has been difficult (for fans). I am not making any excuses about that or hiding from it. Fans come to see us win and score goals and believe me we are striving to do that”.

But earlier in his answer, Webber argued that in some games, although the results had been disappointing, it has been exciting.

“If you take the 0-0 draw at home to Bolton and the 0-0 draw at home to Burton back in September I’d challenge anyone who got bored. If people say they got bored at home to Bolton then go and watch another team is my answer to that, because Cedric (Anselin), who was doing your co-commentary, said it was the best half of football he’d seen at Carrow Road in years”.

So he was saying, “That was a brilliant, exciting half and if anyone says he/she was bored, they’re never going to be satisfied”.

The “go and watch another team” bit was just a throwaway line in an unscripted interview. It was an unprepared, unguarded remark. I think it was probably unwise, too. But in the context of everything else he said, it was not anything like the ‘lump it or leave it’ remark too many fans on here and elsewhere have pretended or imagined.

It’s one thing to be fed up, disappointed and perhaps even angry about results. I was at QPR. It was grim. But it’s another thing to whip yourself up into a frenzy about what the club’s sporting director says when he’s trying to make an honest point.

In four decades as a football journalist, I can only think of two or three senior figures at any football club who have made themselves so readily available to meet fans, give interviews, answer questions and try to explain their aims and actions as Stuart Webber and Steve Stone.

Fans who don’t listen to an interview but jump on two phrases and think the absolute worst — or who do listen and still misinterpret the quote or ignore the context — are just sh*t stirring and should ask themselves whether they are helping the club they care about get the success we all crave.

Posted By: DrDublin on April 5th 2018 at 14:09:49

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